Pre- and Perinatal Massage Therapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Prenatal, Labor and Postpartum Practice

This is the third edition of a highly successful guide to using massage therapy through all stages of the birth process, from pregnancy, through labor and birth, and into the long postpartum period.

Carole Osborne is an integrative bodywork practitioner, author, course developer/instructor and mentor based in San Diego, California. Since beginning her career in 1974, she has worked in private practice and in osteopathic, psychological, and women's medical settings. In the early 1980s, she began exploring how informed therapeutic bodywork could safely support childbearing challenges and potentials. Her work, in collaboration with colleagues, pioneered the reintroduction of therapeutic massage and bodywork to American maternity healthcare.

Carole's major career accomplishments include:
Co-Founding the International Professional School of Bodywork (IPSB), where she developed ground-breaking techniques and instructional approaches to somatics, rhythmic deep tissue, prenatal, labor and postpartum massage therapy.

Publishing Deep Tissue Sculpting, Second Edition.
Authoring the definitive pregnancy massage training textbook, Pre- and Perinatal Massage Therapy in1998; second edition (Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins) in 2012; Japanese translation, 2015; and now the third edition, co-authored with Michele Kolakowski and David M. Lobenstine.
Developing numerous continuing education (CE) courses, nationally approved (NCBTMB) in the United States, including the Pre- & Perinatal Massage Therapy Specialization Workshop, and other maternity-related and CE curricula on somato-emotional integration, career longevity, and teaching massage therapy.

Contributing to Teaching Massage and to When Survivors Give Birth.

Being one of a select group of practitioners for the Massage Research Agenda Workgroup (1999) for the Massage Therapy Research Foundation, providing input to their 10-year research agenda.
Receiving the Jerome Perlinski National Teacher of the Year Award, presented by the American Massage Therapy Association, 2008.

Carole has trained over 5,000 therapists and other perinatal specialists throughout North America and in the United Kingdom. She has taught in hospital and visiting nursing programs, at innumerable massage schools and conventions, and in spas, resorts and businesses of all sizes. She has also developed a dynamic team of authorized instructors of her work. Her numerous articles have appeared in many professional and mainstream publications. In addition to her continued enthusiasm for her practice, teaching and writing, she is highly motivated to work with individual therapists and small groups in practice supervision and mentoring. She is a professional member of the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education (AFMTE) and the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), and is Board Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (BCTMB).

Carole's earliest bodywork studies were with the Arica Institute, Milton Trager, and Tai Chi Master Abraham Liu. A 1976 private apprenticeship with Edward Maupin, Ph.D., one of the first seven Rolfers, added a foundation in the perspective of Ida P. Rolf. Throughout her career she has sought balance between the art and science of hands-on therapies. Her curiosity and inspiration continue to spiral within her own and her clients' physical, emotional, mental and spiritual experiences. In addition to her professional passions, her children, grandchildren, dancing and spiritual development are paramount.

For more about Carole and her work: www.bodytherapyeducation.com or carole@bodytherapyeducation.com